Betty Jane I (S.P. 3458)
1917-1918
The Navy retained the name carried by this vessel at the time of her acquisition.
(S.P. 3458: length 36'0"; beam 6'6"; draft 2'4" (aft); speed (cruising) 24 knots)
Soon after the United States entered the Great War, the single-screw, wooden-hulled motor boat Betty Jane I constructed in 1913 at Bayonne, N.J., by the Elco Co., was acquired by the Navy on free lease from Mr. Percy Ballentyne of South Montrose, Pa., on 4 September 1917, for service as a motor patrol boat, and, having been assigned the identification number S.P. 3458, was commissioned later that day.
Assigned to the Sixth Naval District, Betty Jane I spent the remainder of the war patrolling the southeastern coast of the United States. On 17 January 1919, some two months after the Armistice ended hostilities, she was returned to her owner and her name was stricken from the Navy Register.
Raymond A. Mann
26 January 2006
